I recently began working at the Environmental Business Council of New England after many years of seasonal EE work. I enjoy the great outdoors, exploring New England (and someday, the world), and taking advantage of our fair City of Boston.

Difficult Topics:
Diversity and Inclusion

I had the pleasure of attending Garry Dow and Sarah Bursky’s MEES Conference workshop “Inclusion and Diversity in Environmental Education: A pragmatic approach to shifting demographics”.  They tackled a very difficult set of topics – what does diversity and inclusion look like?  “Who” is included in the discussion?  What are the key questions to ask yourself (and your team) when thinking about diversity and inclusion?  Are there universal steps in the right direction?

These are tough questions and Garry and Sarah addressed them in a very hands-on way – with a worksheet designed to make each person think outside the box.  Folks were very engaged and came away from the program a little bit more energized and ready to make some change!  I personally enjoyed the discussion that was encouraged by the presenters during major points in the workshop.  We all need to be challenged when it comes to diversity and inclusion within our organizations.

I commend these two for presenting a difficult topic in a down-to-earth way.  I really appreciated hearing from them about how The Trustees of Reservations, their parent organization, had begun to think through its statewide diversity and inclusion initiative.  What a refreshing and honest workshop.